The Food File

Deep Fried Soft Shell Blue Crab

2008-04-10T04:32:00.000-07:00

A Surprising treat down Grand Popo way.

These guys were beer battered and done in a vegetable oil from a lawn chair in Collin's front yard. Dipped in a quark and citrus dressing with quark from a monestary in Parakou.

Pork and Peron

2008-04-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

The pork part is pretty self explanatory. Pork and Peron

The peron, on the other hand, is simply gari (dried and ground manioc, a type of potato) bound together with rendered pork fat and seasonings.

Just terrible for the heart, but easily the most palatable of all the amorphous demi-liquids consumed here. Ususally served with sauce (below) or just diced peppers.

Beer: Awooyo

2008-03-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

One of the few beers in West Africa that I could imagine an American market for – a rich, hopsy amber that drinks surprisingly light in the heat. Brewed in Togo along with Lionkiller, similarly hard to find.

Pop: Lionkiller

2008-03-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

Lemon Lime Orange soda from Togo, tough to find east of Ouidah, and how can you not love that label. Extra point when ordering with the French accented “Ley-onne Key-yeah.”

Meat: Bat

2008-02-12T07:40:00.000-08:00

We’ve gotten used to a lot of things around here food wise – buying food out of a plastic cooler on the side of the road, not asking what piece of the animal a given morsel of meat is (not like the chef could tell you anyway) and the general idea that there are more edible animals out there than we initially thought (see: Rat, bush variety). But this one caught us by surprise.

Eric came home one night holding two bats given to him by a friend. As the story was told to us, the friend who lives en brousse had used a slingshot at dusk to fell them and handed them over as a thank you for a social debt outstanding.

We fought off our general dislike of bats long enough to watch the preparation, although did not have the opportunity to partake. Eric swears it tastes like guinea fowl, in itself a more mild chicken. We think we’ll be taking his word for it.

Drink: Coconut & Pineapple Infused Sodabi

2008-02-11T03:33:00.000-08:00

If you like Pina Coladas (not to mention getting caught in the rain), you'll love this latest sodabi infusion. For those who don't know, Sodabi is the local palm wine distillation that is the very embodiment of the term "fire water." Normally it is best shot and followed by a big gulp of anything else, that is when its not being used to strip the paint off a car.

But owing to its high alcohol content, it also tends to absorb flavors well. Our friend Chris has been the vanguard of sodabi infusion thus far, producing an excellent coconut drink a few nights back that was similar to a Malibu rum. It was on the back of that bottle we decided to give this a shot:

And it was good. Really did taste like a Pina Colada when drunk over ice. Now how do you suppose we say "little paper umbrella" in Beninese French?

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter

2007-12-10T06:13:00.000-08:00

Most know I (Jaren) am a lover of peanut butter and when I realized peanuts are bountiful here (as is time) in Benin, I took the opportunity to make it from scratch.

Two words to describe it: delicious and labor-intensive! It is a five step process that starts with shucking peanuts (harvested by Grandmere of course), followed by roasting the peanuts in the skin to then easily peel the skin off the nuts before roasting them again until golden brown. Once the peanuts look like the peanuts you snack on back home, that’s when you put ‘em through the grinder. The oils ooze out and peanuts become one big glob of deliciousness. To try something new, a little bit of locally-grown honey was added to the final product. “C’est doux”!

Meal: Gari Ball Soup

2007-11-24T04:46:00.001-08:00

Drawing inspiration from another well known story about hot and sweaty people, we decided to have a little fun with Gari (ground manioc). Sort of a starch, consistency of Kraft grated Parmesan, we worked something up little egg and flower that might be vaguely confused with the passover favorite.

Drink: Yaahu Gin

2007-11-24T04:36:00.000-08:00

Not a good gin by anymeans, but what it lacks in flavor it more than makes up for in robust abuse of intellectual property rights.

Meal: I'ngame Pile

2007-10-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

I'ngames are ginormous potato/yams found everywhere in the North. The most common way to prepare the i'ngame is to mash it using a large wooden stick until it has a consistency of mashed potatoes. It is served usually with a peanut oil sauce and fried wagasi cheese.

Here's a picture of a pile of ignames. This is what they look like before being peeled and mashed.

***A picture of a proper i'ngame pile meal will be coming soon***

Cheese: Wagasi

2007-10-14T01:14:00.000-07:00

It is a cheese that has the texture of feta and the flavor of mozzarella. It's made from the local Peul (or Fulani) nomadic tribes in the North. The most popular way to eat it here is to fry it in oil and serve it with I'ngame Pile or Pate.

It doesn't have much to it, so it is necessary to eat it with something flavorful!

Beer: Beninoise

2007-10-14T00:59:00.001-07:00

Probably the Bud Light of Sub-Saharan Africa. Sure you can drink it, but there is anything remarkable about it other than it's affordability. That and a sweet logo, which was clearly enough to get me to drink it for the first few weeks in country.

Pop: Moka

2007-10-14T00:52:00.001-07:00

Think cream soda, but with caffeine. It is a popular beverage here that is basically Coke with a shot of coffee in it. Sound familiar? Though Coke has a similar product, Moka's flavor is far superior as well as containing far more sugar.

Beer: Flag

2007-10-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

If Beninoise is the Bud Light, then this is the Miller High Life – the flavor definitely has a personality, but most people either love it or absolutely detest it. For the same price, we much prefer having our beer taste like something.

Meal: Pâte

2007-10-14T00:42:00.000-07:00

Edible papier-mâché anyone? Pate is the staple starchy food in the Beninese diet that gives them the "force". It is essentially corn flour and water cooked over a flame and stirred until it's a glob. It's then eaten with a sauce, usually a red sauce (with mashed tomatoes , onions and hot peppers) or "legume" sauce (okra vegetable leaves cooked down, ou bien, over-cooked).

There are 3 types of pate here in Benin: blanc (white): regular; rouge (red): tomatoes mashed into it; and noir (black): yam peel mashed into it.

****Sadly, we don't have a picture of the deliciousness just yet....we will be sure to post one soon. In the meantime, here's a picture of how it's made

Cheese: Kachkéis

2007-04-20T01:23:00.000-07:00

"Kachkéis" in Luxembourgish, or "Concoillotte" in French is a melted, but chilled cheese spread that has a brie-like texture and a camembert-like taste. It is smeared over bread.

To learn more about Kachkéis, click HERE

Meal: Ham, Fritten an Zalot

2007-04-20T01:13:00.000-07:00

Ham, Fritten an Zalot is a traditional Luxembourgish Dish, which is essentially huge portions of ham, french fries and salad! Delicious! It goes well with a Luxembourgish beer!

Meal: Quiche Bourgogne & Quiche Lorraine

2007-04-20T00:29:00.000-07:00

Quiche Lorraine is a local treat from the Lorraine Region of Nothern France. In it is ham and compte cheese.

Quiche Bourgogne has cheese and olives.

Meal: Fondue

2007-04-16T03:41:00.000-07:00

Fondue is Switzerland's most renowned and traditional dish. Fondue consists of cheese, typically Gruyere and Emmental; white wine, usually Fendant; and a splash a Kirsch, a Swiss cherry liquor mixed together in an earthenware pot called a "caquelon" over low heat. Once melted together the caquelon is placed on a stand over a small flame to maintain the consistency while on the table. Fondue, which means to melt in French, is consumed with pieces of bread placed on a long fork and is drunk with Fendant wine.

Meal: Charbonnade

2007-04-13T05:08:00.000-07:00

Another Swiss tradition to go along with table top frying and melting -- tabletop grilling!

Charbonnade is basically a French (and therefore fancy) way of saying little grill. The process of preparing the meal is much like preparing Korean BBQ. Place the raw meat over the tabletop device and when cooked to preference, remove and garnish.

Served with fries, a simple but fun way to enjoy a meal.

Dessert: Meringues with Double Cream and Rasberries

2007-04-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

A Gruyeres specialty, this simple yet decadent dessert takes locally-made meringues and tops them with fresh berries and a wonderful double cream.

The cream is what really makes the dish. With the consistency of house paint, the cream is all produced from the milk of Gruyeres cows (including that uppity heifer Cherry...), the same milk used to produced the world famous Gruyeres cheese.

A splendid way to top off a day in the Swiss countryside.

Beer: Cardinal

2007-04-13T04:56:00.000-07:00

Pretty much Switzerland's best and most widely consumer lager. On draft most places, with the added bonus of being cold.

Meal: Penne Fois Gras

2007-04-13T04:50:00.000-07:00

Unlike in the United States, Fois Gras is produced and consumed with wanton abandon over here. In this case, a healthy portion of the rich, fatty goose liver is served over penne pasta with red bell peppers and a drizzle of olive oil. Within minutes the fois gras melts, coating the pasta with flavor.

Mmmmm...

Fish: Lac Leman Perch

2007-04-13T04:47:00.000-07:00

Caught in Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), these small perch have a great texture and end up as a great vehicle for sauces and spices.

Served here with new potatoes and clarified butter.

Cheese: Raclette

2007-04-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

It starts out as a brick of cheese, mild and smooth texture. When placed under a heat source (in this case, a coil on the underside of the lid on the mechanism pictured), the cheese melts.

Once the cheese is light brown and viscous, it is scraped using a long knife (actually a short blade with a long, wooden handle) onto hot fingerling potatoes.

So yeah, just bubbling cheese and potatoes. Find me someone who doesn't like that and I'll find you a liar.

Meal: Goliard

2006-12-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

An unbeatable meal. After starting off with some local olives, we got down to business.

For the wine, we went local. Definitely dry, but in a good way.

Arguably the highlight of the night, Squid tentacles served on a bed of ground asparagus and artichoke. It was out of this world good.

We doubled that up with a plate of local cheeses, both hard and soft. A good break from the Swiss we're getting used to, these had less of a sharp flavor while still being , um robust?

Main course. For Jaren, it was a cod dish in a potato cream sauce topped with a local dry aged ham. All was very good (with a particular shout out to the local smoked meats - they we're literally hanging all over town, and I fully understand why).

For me, it was grilled prawns served on a bed of garbanzos and a mild curry. De-licious, although I could have done well with a second helping.

And to top it all off, Semicuit de chocolate con helado de avellanas --it looked like this:

Wine: Vin Chaud

2006-12-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

Vin Chaud is French for hot wine, which is essentially mulled spiced wine. It is the Swiss winter beverage of choice.

Vin Chaud includes:
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
4 cinnamon sticks or a few sprinkles of ground cinnamon
6 whole cloves
1 fresh whole nutmeg
2 oranges or clementines, thinly sliced
1 bottle red wine

Simply combine 2 cups of water with the sugar and spices in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Add the orange slices, remove pan from the heat and let sit for 15 minutes. Stir in the wine. Reheat gently over low heat, never allowing to boil. Serve hot.

Bon santé.

This is a pictures of vin chaud made in a caldron at a Christams market.

Beer: Amsterdam Maximator

2006-12-01T03:43:00.000-08:00

Lest you think everything we review here gets enthusiastic approval, we offer the below for your consideration.

If you will, picture a Tuesday night in Geneva, most every shop closed and we in the mood for a beer but not for getting out of our pajamas. So, like the good bums we are ,we roll out to the corner kiosk to pick up a pair of beers.

Not looking for fancy, just something cold and flavorful. Always up for the adventure, we reach past the Heiniken and go for the unknown label: Amsterdam Maximator.

Now the name alone makes one cower in the potential awesomeness of this beer. They didn't call it Amsterdam Prettygoodimator now did they?

It. Was. Awful. Imagine Old English malt liquor with a random aftertaste of stale whiskey (and not in that good Boilermarker way either).

They were finished, but barely. I think this botched attempt at "Blue Steel" says it all.

Meal: Rabbit Fricasse

2006-12-01T02:39:00.000-08:00

"Little bunny foo foo

Hopping through the kitchen
Picking up the flavors
And popping 'em in the pot"

-Popular children's limerick

Or that's at least how I remember it, I may be wrong.

Regardless, as may have been mentioned here before, many of the foodstuffs available in Swiss markets are far different than those you may find at your local butcher. One such item, "Lapin" a francais, has been drawing my attention since we got here. So when rabbit went on sale, it went on the menu.

Having not a clue how to prepare rabbit (my original plans involved a live rabbit in a large black cauldron over an open fire coming to a slow boil while I carefully cut carrots, might have had something to do with scenes like this:

Getting on with it, I hunted through the Food Network website until I came along a recipe that if our needs, tastes and resources. An Emril Legasse creation, the Dutch Oven-cooked rabbit dish was as delicious as it was interesting.

On the stove:

On the plate:

So what does rabbit actually taste like? The common misconception is that it tastes like chicken. In truth, it has the chicken texture, but the flavor has much more of a duck taste minus the fatty richness. Very good though, and highly recommended.

Wine: Dole Du Valais

2006-11-18T16:32:00.000-08:00

The first of many local wines you'll be seeing, as the saying with Swiss wines is that its all the stuff that was too good to export.

This white comes from Switzerland's third largest canton, Valais. Fruity without being too sweet, it also hada slight "fizz" (not like champagne, more subtle).

Wine: Loggia Del Conte

2006-11-18T11:29:00.000-08:00

A good Italian Chianti, good flavor without "insisting on itself" (ok, so we don't know wine so much, but it was really good with a beef dish).

Beer: Kaiser Bier

2006-11-17T11:22:00.000-08:00

A flavorful Austiran lager. We enjoyed many.

Meal: Quiche

2006-11-17T08:05:00.000-08:00

Last night I made Steve true French meal, quiche.

I made it with spinich sauted in garlic and onions, smoked salmon, and feta cheese on top of the pie crust with the egg and milk mixture poured on top.

"Mmmmmmmmmm....." - Steve.

Meal: Fondue and Mussels

2006-10-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

During our day in Neuchâtel, we had dinner at a little Bistro called The Jura. Looking for something local, this place offered the variety and authenticity we were looking for.

First up, the fondue. In this case, it was Fondue Neuchâteloise, meaning that it was local variations on the Gruyere cheese, local white wine served melted with basic baguette. Fondue, of course, comes in a variety of forms -- both bread/ cheese and meat/oil combos -- most of which will be profiled at some point on this blog.

Steve had Les Moulles et Frites. This is essentially mussels steamed in a white wine and garlic sauce, served with a side of fries and mayonnaise. A Francophone delicacy, we deduced that this simple, eat-with-your-hands experience was essentially the European equivalent to buffalo chicken wings (that's a good thing).

Furthermore, we had a couple of local, unpasturized/ unfiltered beers to go with. Dark and somewhat sweet, the beers complemented the meal well (and came in sweet bottles with hinge-tops like Grolsch does stateside.

Naturally there was a lot of sharing going on (particularly the fries in the fondue).

Put a bubbling vat of cheese in front of Jaren, you know she'll be happy. Add a steaming vat of flavorful finger food for Steve and you've got two very happy diners.

Cheese: Tonneau

2006-10-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

Steve and I were in Manor, one of the main everything department/grocery stores in the centre of town, and came across the 'samples lady'. She was yelling out "Mister, please try this delicious cheese, it is on sale today" and "Madame, please take." Of course we took a sample. I wasn't sure what Steve would think about the robust and nutty flavor, but by the time I finished my sample he already put a block in the cart. It took that as a good sign.

Voila, Le Tonneau:

Le Tonneau is a new cheese from Switzerland ripened for four months. Its rind has a natural dark color, with grooves that resemble a barrel. Like the character of a large cheese, Le Tonneau has a unique taste with a full, fruity flavor. This fresh, partially skimmed cow's milk cheese has a novel consistency and an exceptionally delicate creaminess.

Chocolate: Chocolat chaud

2006-10-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

Last night, I took a few swiss chocolate bars and made REAL hot chocolate. Oh my lucky stars. This hot chocolate was like sipping curdling sweet goodness.

The ingredients:

100g chocolat noir (1 very large bar of dark chocolate)
100g chocolat au lait (1 very large bar of milk chocolate)
...depending on your chocolate preferences, you can use one or the other. I prefer a melange of the two!
1/5 L of milk (I'd say roughly 2 cups and it needs to be fatty milk, none of this "non fat" stuff)

Pour the milk into a sauce pan, place under moderate heat and stir constantly until the milk begins to bubble. Dump in small pieces of chocolate. Continue to stir (this is important otherwise the milk will scold). Once the milk turns into a dark and delicious color, your hot chocolate is ready to serve!

Enjoy!

Meat: Lamb

2006-10-18T06:56:00.000-07:00

Lamb is one of the most widely consumed meats in Switzerland. You could say, what beef is to the US, lamb is to Switzerland.

One day, Steve was shopping at MIGROs and saw a lamb shank on "ACTION" (sale, but more of an "oh my, we've got too much meat" sale than an "oh my, this meat is 4 hours from spoiling" sale) for 5 Swiss Francs (roughly $4.) What a bargain! He brought the lamb shank home and conjured up a meal idea to complement the lamb.

On the menu:

Glaze of Salt, pepper, paprika, dill, lemon and honey. Cover pan with foil and roast for 55 minutes on 425 F. Remove foil and cook for 350 F for an additional 25 minutes.

Served with a mushroom risotto et, voila!

Cheese: Gruyère

2006-10-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

A long favorite of Jaren - we've already had two very good blocks bought at a farmers market.

Gruyère is a hard yellow cheese made from cow's milk, named after the town of Gruyères. Sweet but slightly salty, with a flavor that varies widely with age, Gruyère is often described as creamy and nutty when young, becoming with age more assertive, earthy, and complex. When fully aged (five months to a year) it tends to have small holes and cracks which impart a slightly grainy mouthfeel.

See HERE for more information